Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (I) — who left the Republican Party during his unsuccessful 2010 U.S. Senate bid — told Chuck Todd that he’d consider voting for President Obama in November.

Said Crist: “Consider? Sure, I would consider that. I really think he’s sincere and genuine. I think we have a lot time, a lot of issues to talk about, but I think, in his heart, he’s trying to do what’s right for the country overall.”

Crist also said he wouldn’t rule out running for office as a Democrat himself in the future.

Mr. Romney was savaged by Mr. Gingrich over his record at Bain Capital, softening him up for the coming Democratic effort to portray him as a heartless capitalist happy to fire people to enrich himself. His release of his tax returns, complete with details about a Swiss bank account, provided new facts for opponents seeking to cast him as out of touch with ordinary Americans.

And the very trait that propelled him in Florida — a willingness to descend into the muck and run a relentlessly negative campaign — distracted from his economic-themed argument against Mr. Obama while deepening his rift with some populist conservatives. Should Mr. Gingrich remain a viable enough candidate to stay in the race through the summer, Mr. Romney could be forced to maintain an angry edge that could undermine his appeal among moderate and independent voters — groups whose views of him, polls suggest, appear to have been harmed by the Florida melee.

“There are questions about his wealth and Bain, but he has not become an intensely polarizing figure yet,” said Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist who worked on Mr. Romney’s presidential campaign in 2008. “The question is, will he become that?”

Mr. Romney himself seemed sensitive to the perception that his campaign has become locked in a bitter — and counterproductive — war of words with his leading Republican rival.

“I would like to spend more of our time focusing on President Obama,” he said in Tampa on Tuesday as voting was under way. “That’s ultimately what’s going to be essential to taking back the White House.”

His challenge is about to become even more complicated. As much as he would like to be punching and counterpunching with Mr. Obama, he must still contend with Mr. Gingrich, who vowed Tuesday night to remain in what he described as a two-man nomination fight.

Mr. Romney faces a classic dilemma in presidential politics: Going negative is never an appealing option, but the alternative amounts to unilateral disarmament and a much higher likelihood of defeat, especially against a rival like Mr. Gingrich who has little to lose.

“In primary politics, short-term gains are what matters, because if you don’t have the short-term gains, you won’t be around long enough to deal with the long-term problems,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute…..

Will the apologists for our emerging American oligarchy try to talk their way around even this?

According to the Heritage Foundation’s 2012 Index of Economic Freedom, the United States has an economic freedom score of 76.3, which makes the United States rank tenth out of one hundred seventy-nine ranked countries. Hong Kong ranks first, with an economic freedom score of 89.9.

Heritage’s stated mission is to “formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense”.

They think we’re not doing so well. And in case you didn’t know, here’s who they are:

Heritage is primarily funded through donations from private individuals and charitable foundations. Businessman Joseph Coorscontributed the first $250,000 to start The Heritage Foundation in 1973. Other significant contributors have included the conservativeOlin, Scaife, DeVos and Bradley foundations.

In 2007, Heritage reported an operating revenue of $75.0 million dollars. As of February 2011, Heritage reported 710,000 supporters.[28] Heritage Foundation is also a part of the Koch Foundation Associate Program.[29]

Those are family foundations, very very conservative family foundations that provided much of the funding for the anti-Clinton crusade of the 90′s: the eternal Paula Jones lawsuit, the fake Whitewater ‘scandal’ – even personal financial support for the public accusers around the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

“We wanted to get it out there and start the hype,” says Jason Sperling, executive vice president at RPA, the ad firm that thought up the spot (and hiredHangover director Todd Phillips to direct it). “You actually get a lot more eyeballs this way. You get a more attentive audience.” Super Bowl commercial aficionados will recall that last year’s Star Wars-themed Volkswagen commercial — in which a little boy in a Darth Vader costume uses Jedi mind tricks to start his dad’s Passat — became a web sensation, with 8 million people watching the ad online before it actually aired during the game. “We have this Internet culture now, and people are starting to realize the value of it,” says Sperling.

Getting the movie and music rights needed to make the ad was relatively easy, but convincing Broderick to sign on took some doing. “At first, he passed,” recalls Sperling. “But then a week later he called and asked if it was still on the table. I think he just wanted to be convinced that we would do the movie justice.” You can judge for yourself whether they succeeded or not — and while you’re at it, see if you can spot some of the Ferris Bueller Easter eggs strewn throughout the homage. For instance, that white-fringe jacket at the Chinese parade look familiar to anyone?

A relaxed Mitt Romney broke into song on the eve of a Florida vote that polls suggested would propel him back into the lead of the bitterly-fought Republican White House race.

Clad in blue jeans, a navy blazer and an open-collar shirt, Romney asked an audience of around 300 retirees if they knew the words to the patriotic ode “America the Beautiful,” saying: “I love that song.”

He then went on to sing the opening verse — “O beautiful for spacious skies/ For amber waves of grain… ” — as the audience sang along.

“I love this country,” the former Massachusetts governor said.

The performance lacked the flair of Democratic President Barack Obama’s rendition earlier this month of Al Green’s 1971 hit “Let’s Stay Together” at a New York fundraiser in which the soul legend was in attendance.

“I’m ….. so in love with you,” Obama crooned in a melodic falsetto at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem. The moment became a hit on YouTube, where it has been viewed by more than 650,000 people…

But the Congress must put politics on the sdie and figure out how to grow the Economy while making cuts ….

THAT MAKE SENSE…..

And are NOT Counter productive….

And that WILL be hard to do in the coming months….

The Congressional Budget Office takes stock of the federal budget at least three times each year: in January, upon receipt of the president’s budget and again in August. The agency’s projection for the 2012 deficit has increased slightly since August, primarily because of corporate tax receipts and the extension of the Social Security payroll tax holiday through the end of this month.

Lawmakers in both parties want to extend the tax break, which reduces the payroll tax rate from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent, through the rest of this year. If Congress cannot agree on spending cuts or tax increases to replace the lost revenue, the new extension would add another $75 billion to the 2012 deficit, the CBO said.

Even then, the 2012 budget gap would mark an improvement over the past three years, when the deficit topped out at $1.4 trillion. The budget gap has fallen steadily as a share of the slowly growing economy — dropping from 10 percent in 2009 to a projected 7 percent this year — as individual tax collections have begun to recover and spending on the social safety net has shrunk…..

Newt Gingrich lectures Juan Williams about his “food stamp” rhetoric in South Carolina

Why did Newt Gingrich win South Carolina? According to Romneyworld, it’s largely because Republican voters there are a bunch of racists who can’t tell the difference between Juan Williams and President Obama:

Romney advisers say the 22-point switch in polls in the state took place after Gingrich’s extended tussle with Juan Williams over racial sensitivity. “Williams was a stand-in for Barack Obama in people’s minds,” said one Romney adviser.

Undoubtedly, Gingrich’s defense of his “food-stamp” dog-whistle gave him a big boost in South Carolina, but it wasn’t the only thing that figured into his victory. Gingrich’s thundering response to John King’s question about his ex-wife was also enormously important as was the fact that unlike Florida, Romney was unable to drown Gingrich out in ad spending.

Moreover, leading up to the final week in South Carolina, Gingrich made Romney’s Bain record a major issue, something that he has since dropped. Another crucial factor: in South Carolina, Romney didn’t go nearly as negative as he has in Florida until late in the game. He tried to run on his own merits—and ended up getting beaten badly.

In Florida, Romney has learned from his South Carolina mistakes and as a result, he is likely to win by a wide margin. Assuming that’s what happens, Romney will leave Florida convinced of his invincibility, but the only thing he’ll have really proven is that when you can outspend Newt Gingrich by a five-to-one ratio, it’s not that hard to beat him in a negative campaign. And looking towards November, Romney’s problem is that President Obama is not Newt Gingrich.

More and more polls show two things: (1) tonight Mitt Romney will win Florida and (2) Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum will combined get more votes. In fact, moving forward, the Romney campaign will probably engage in a concerted effort to prop up Rick Santorum because as long as he stays in the race, Gingrich will find it very difficult to stop Romney. More interestingly, if Santorum drops out and Newt Gingrich starts winning, suddenly the establishment will have to take seriously the idea of finding someone to replace Mitt Romney.

I get repeated calls asking me to ask Rick Santorum to get out of the race. I doubt he would even listen and, unlike Rick Perry, Rick Santorum actually won a state. Today he is going to get badly, badly beaten. And it’ll probably be downhill from there. But there’s no more reason to ask him to get out of the race than Gingrich. He can decide to stay in and help Romney or get out and help Gingrich.

After Florida, the decisions become more crucial.There will be a series of nonbinding caucuses in February: Maine on February 4-11; Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri on February 7. There will be a binding caucus in Nevada on February 4, which the Gingrich camp is rumored to be ceding to Romney. Michigan and Arizona will both have closed primaries on February 28th. Both favor Romney because of ties to the states. Super Tuesday hits March 6 with elections in Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Will the non-Romney’s support Ron Paul in Virginia and Gingrich rally Georgia to his cause?

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Leading Off:• House Open Seat Watch: The newest installment in our 2012 House Open Seat Watch is finally here. We’ve accounted for every twist and turn brought on by reapportionment and redistricting, and you won’t find a more comprehensive list anywhere else of who’s in, who’s out, and who’s still on the watch list. An impressive 49 seats are open as of this date, and there may be many more yet to come. Click the link for our bevy of charts which will give you the full picture, in classic Daily Kos Elections style…..

With the President squeezing Iran to try make that country stop it’s nuclear bomb program…..

The prospect of Iran pushing back against the President and the West’s embargo action looms bigger….

Embargo’s of a countries richest asset….

For Iran …..It’s oil revenue….. Is the stuff that makes wars….

While Iran couldn’t and wouldn’t challenge the US directly…..

The nation’s Intelligence people go to bed every night worried about things the Iranian leader COULD do against America and the West….

Even as Al Qaeda‘s ability to attack the United States continues to diminish, Iran is more willing to attack the United States and American interests overseas, the top U.S. intelligence official told Congress Tuesday.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper said that a failed 2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in Washington has convinced U.S. intelligence officials that the leaders of the Iranian government are increasingly likely to support attacks on U.S. soil.

“Some Iranian officials – probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khameni – have changed their calculus and are now willing to conduct an attack in the United States,” said Clapper in written testimony submitted to Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in advance of his appearance during a hearing about all security threats facing the United States. Iran continues to move forward with its ability to produce weapons-grade nuclear material, he said.

In October, DEA and FBI agents disrupted a bomb plot to kill Adel Al-Jubeir, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States and possibly over 100 bystanders in a busy Washington restaurant. The plot, which the U.S. believes was directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and involved a Mexican drug cartel, never moved beyond the planning stages….

I’m getting sick of hearing the bull shit line that Newt Gingrich will go on and could pull this thing out….

The guy has no plan except to keep on walking….

He’s down to his last 100,000 in campaign funds …

He’s living off of Pac ads by Other people and hand out from rich guys he criticizes Mitt Romney about…

He’s been running around Florida with No Game plan for the state …

While Romney & Co. strategically went about their business starting Right AFTER Mitt lost South Carolina ….

The early moves alone by Romney will get him at LEAST a 100,000 more primary votes than Newt…

For the next three weeks there are NO DEBATES….

And as any current political junkie knows ….Newt has lived and died by the debates….

The guy isn’t even registered for several of the up coming states….

While Romney and Paul’s people have organizations up and actively working the caucuses that will go on in February….

Newt’s best chance WILL be the Southern States….

But like a man caught in a desert….

He’s gotta have water ($$$) to get there….

Like I said….

The Big guy has no game….

And this Dog don’t feel sorry for him….

Maybe he can get a couple of those kids he sent to take the janitors job to help him…..

Cause after losing in Florida…….

It looks like he’s not gonna be running against the ‘food stamp President’…

Mitt will……

With polls suggesting that he was lagging far behind, Mr. Gingrich, a former House speaker, was trying to avoid a lopsided defeat to carry his campaign forward to the next series of nominating contests, which kick off Saturday as the focus shifts to Nevada.

Appearing Tuesday morning on “Fox and Friends,” Mr. Gingrich made the case he had been making for some time that if all conservatives unite, they will defeat Mr. Romney. Without calling for Rick Santorum to withdraw, he argued he was the best candidate to emerge as the anti-Romney.

“If you watch tonight, my prediction is the conservative vote will be dramatically bigger than Governor Romney’s,” he said. “So we’ve got to find a way to consolidate conservatives, and I’m clearly the front-runner among conservatives.”

But Mr. Gingrich also predicted early returns would suggest a Romney cakewalk because of voters who cast their ballots before Mr. Gingrich’s victory in South Carolina 10 days ago.

“I can tell you now the early vote will all look very good for Romney because it’s the absentees, where he spent millions of dollars before we got here,” Mr. Gingrich said at a campaign stop later Tuesday morning. “But we’ll see as the evening goes on how it’s going to go. We’ve had a huge number of phone calls, tremendous number of volunteers, and I want to see what happens tonight.”

Mr. Romney had a relatively light day of campaigning planned for Tuesday. He is scheduled to appear at an event in Tampa later in the morning and was holding his post-primary rally at the city’s convention center…..